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{{flavour|Poltergeists are undead spirits who delight in causing trouble for the living. Completely incorporeal, they interact with the physical world by possessing small objects and making them fly through the air. They can use this to fight with weapons as well as the living do, as well as gain the protective benefits of many different hats, boots, gloves, and cloaks at once, though body armour is too large for them to manipulate in this fashion. At higher levels of experience, they can even control these possessed objects at a distance from time to time, harassing their foes with a barrage of unruly armour.

Their superlative aptitude for both stealth and hexes make them powerful enchanters, and they are adequate at most other forms of magic, though they struggle with conjurations. They are adept with short blades, if a little below average with heavier weapons, and their lack of a physical body makes them terrible at unarmed combat. The same power they used to possess objects makes them natural experts at throwing.

Finally, their nature as spirits of bad luck also grants them temporary AC whenever they inflict maladies upon their enemies.}}
'''Poltergeists''' are an insubstantial undead species with interchangeable auxiliary armour.

==Innate Abilities==
*Poltergeists are '''[[undead]]''' creatures, and have the following innate traits:
**'''[[Cold Resistance 1]]''': Poltergeists are resistant to cold.
**'''[[Life Protection 3]]''': Poltergeists are resistant to [[negative energy]].
**'''[[Poison Resistance|Poison Immunity]]''': Poltergeists are immune to poison.
**'''[[Torment Immunity]]''': Poltergeists cannot be tormented.
**Poltergeists cannot gain [[mutation]]s, use [[talisman]]s, or be [[polymorph]]ed. When mutated, they [[drain|temporarily lose max HP]] instead.
**Poltergeists are [[unbreathing]], cannot be put to [[sleep]], cannot go [[berserk]], and do not have [[blood]].
**Poltergeists are vulnerable to [[Dispel Undead]], [[holy]] damage, and [[holy wrath]]-[[brand]]ed weapons. They may not worship the [[good god]]s ([[The Shining One]], [[Zin]], or [[Elyvilon]]). The holy wrath brand will not function on weapons they wield.
**Poltergeists cannot use the spells [[Borgnjor's Revivification]], [[Death's Door]], or [[Sublimation of Blood]].
**Poltergeists need twice as much XP as normal to remove [[Doom]] and [[Bane]]s.
*Poltergeists are '''[[insubstantial]]''', granting immunity to [[throwing net]]s, [[web]]s, [[constriction]], [[petrification]], the -Move from [[Throw Bolas]], and [[sticky flame]].
*'''[[Floating]]''': Poltergeists' insubstantial bodies float through the air, flying permanently.
*'''Formless 1:''' Poltergeists may equip any combination of six items of auxiliary armour ([[hat]]s, [[helmet]]s, [[gloves]], [[boots]], [[cloak]]s, and [[scarf|scarves]]). They cannot wear body armour, and cannot train the [[Armour]] skill.
*'''Trickster''': When inflicting debuffs on an enemy in [[LOS]] (not counting poison or constriction, but including debuffs from [[allies]]), Poltergeists gain <code>3 + XL / 6</code> AC for the first debuffed enemy, then +1 AC for every enemy thereafter. If the bonus is already at +15 AC or more, the chance to get AC is halved. In addition, there is a cap at <code>6 + XL * 4/5</code>. This bonus decays over time, at a rate of -1 AC per 3.0 [[decaAut]].

Poltergeists have a base [[Strength]] of 4, [[Intelligence]] of 10 and [[Dexterity]] of 9 (before Background modifiers) and have normal base [[magic points]].

==Preferred Backgrounds==
*'''Zealots:''' [[Chaos Knight]]
*'''Warrior-mages:''' [[Enchanter]], [[Hexslinger]]
*'''Mages:''' [[Necromancer]], [[Ice Elementalist]]. [[Earth Elementalist]], [[Alchemist]]
Poltergeists are forbidden from becoming [[Shapeshifter]]s.

==Level Bonuses==
*+1 [[dexterity]] or [[intelligence]] every 5th level.
*10% less [[hit points]] than average.
*+4 [[willpower]] per level.
*At XL 13, they gain the '''Cacophony''' ability. For each piece of armour equipped, an allied '''haunted armour''' is summoned. These allies will not stray more than 2 tiles from the player, and their attacks may [[daze]], [[drain]] or [[confuse]] their targets. For the duration you create a loud noise. The ability has an experience-based cooldown longer than most other comparable effects, and is very noisy for its full duration. (Coded as the '''Formless 2''' mutation.)
**This ability may be used even if worshipping [[Okawaru]].

==Starting Skills and Equipment==
Poltergeists start with all the skills and equipment listed for their background, with the following exception:
*Body armour is replaced with a +1 [[cloak]].

==Difficulty of Play==
{{Hard}}

While Poltergeists have a large amount of built-in resistances and immunities, their low HP and inability to wear body armour makes their base defenses bad, especially early on, when aux armour items have not been found. Thus, they'll tend to lean heavily into inflicting debuffs to benefit from the Trickster passive.

The unlucky XL 13 grants poltergeists a strong (if infrequently-available) ability in Cacophony, which immediately surrounds them in allies that can inflict debuffs. This can help substantially with covering an escape to a staircase or to overwhelm individual foes, but should be used with a fair bit of caution on unknown floors or floors with known [[vault]]s due to being extremely loud for the entire duration.

{{species_aptitudes|Poltergeist}}

==Strategy==
Ways of inflicting debuffs include:
*'''Spells''': [[Hexes]] are the most obvious to use due to the +4 aptitude, though they still have good +1 apts for [[Necromancy]] and [[Alchemy]] that can both debuff and either provide allies or deal direct damage. While Hexes will eventually fall off lategame due to higher will and infinite will enemies, the +4 aptitude makes it cheap to invest (and easy to switch). In addition, it can bridge into [[Summonings]], as both [[Summon Mana Viper]] and [[Sphinx Sisters]] are part Hexes.
*'''Weapons of [[Draining_(brand)|draining]] and [[chaos]]''' are much better on Poltergeists than other species, as both brands can both inflict status debuffs. Chaos can set up [[stab]]s, but could give an enemy a positive-for-the-defender effect.
*'''Evocable / throwing items''', like [[wand of acid|wands of acid]]/[[wand of light|wands of light]], a [[phial of floods]], or [[dart]]s (other than poison darts), can inflict debuffs and are relatively common.
*'''[[God|God choice]]''' can help out significantly when early item luck runs dry.
**Gods with passive debuffs: Includes [[Hepliaklqana]]'s hexer ancestor, [[Uskayaw]] Line Pass and Solo Time, [[Ru]]'s aura, and [[Gozag]]'s gold aura (daze only). [[Xom]] always presents some degree of risk, but can regularly defeat or hinder enemies for free and can provide strong chaos weapons.
**Cheap active ability debuffs: [[Kikubaaqudgha]] provides Sign of Ruin and helps find Necromancy spells. [[Makhleb]]'s Destruction (3 of 4 types have a 50% chance to debuff) and certain demon summons have debuffs. [[Nemelex]] has a variety of cards to inflict statuses, with the deck of destruction having many. [[Fedhas]]' Ballistomycetes can inflict confusion without checking willpower or HD, and oklobs corrode.
**Indirect: [[Sif Muna]] can help find relevant spells. [[Dithmenos]]' shadow mimic can copy your debuff spells.

==History==
*Poltergeists were added in [[0.33]], as a replacement for [[Vampire]]s.

{{species}}

Poltergeist - Revision history

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